Microsoft Windows/Active Directory

Active Directory in Schools

History

High Schools used to use Apple/Mac(s). Then they upgraded to Windows. Now they have Windows XP Professional, Embeded, 7, 98, Server 2008/2003 and Linux. Linux is for networking classes. Windows Embedded is for Cafe Machines. Windows Server 2003 Enterprise is at the main downtown center. Windows 7 Enterprise is what is being installed on new computers.

Active Directory in Schools

Most of each school has active directory on the server. It is connected with an underground trunkline that goes as a Wide Area Network (WAN). Each student and staff member have a Roaming User Profile (RUP) which is stored on the server. Each user can logon a client computer running windows xp professional.

Group Policy Object Editor is where the administrative IT staff secure the computers. They can restrict the start menu, C drive, CMD, more. They force classic start menus on RUP(s). There are different policies for each user on the server.

Single Sign-on

Most schools use a single sign-on tool to manage settings and documents. This is for clients and servers. Administrators manage the passwords and the single sign-on. It provides access to Internal Drives, Special start menus that are there, but not apart of (documents and settings) folder.

My Computer

Local C drive has NTFS File System.

Domain Forests

Students have one. Staff have one. Administrator have one (Built-in accounts).

Local User Profile

Local User Profile (LUP) is a locally stored user profile that was initially stored on a server as a roaming user profile. It has saved profile settings. Everytime a student or staff login to client with roaming user profile their account creates a LUP on the local client.

Quota(s)

Quota(s) are the limits that students and staff get. Some schools allow 20MB disk storage on the network drive. My Documents is where the files are stored. Most school restrict the C drive. My Documents's target is stored on the server under the user account.

Group Policy in Active Directory

Each user is also called a "object". Each object on a server domain can have a group policy set for a group of objects. Group policy is not configured locally most of the time.

Domain Server

The server is the main point of the system. The domain is where the objects are and the Forests connect. Administrative Software Most schools have software for maintance purposes. Bootwiz, SQL2000, Aclient, showname and more.

Rapideploy

Imaging bootworks/RAPIDEPLOY. Version: 6.1.5813.0. Author: Altiris RapiDelpoy. It staff create images of the hard drives and store them on a external HDD. Then they can go to the client and extract the image the HDD. Some images are split into two images.

Rapid Install Package (RIP) Rip(s) are supposed to run Exe(s) they can be created. RIP Conflict editor is an administrative software.

See Also

Windows Server Administration - Active Directory